Insteon reliability has suddenly declined.

[dickberrIN]

I finished converting my dozens of X10 lighting/outlet modules to Insteon and ISY994i during the Summer and all has been quite reliable until just recently. I have a Sleep program that turns everything Off at bedtime and just recently various modules have failed to turn off but their status indicates OFF! It's not the same module every time - it varies randomly. I can go to the ISY994i app and click on Off or just run the Sleep program again to get them Off. Similarly, I have a program that turns some things On in the morning and some of those modules have failed to turn on yet report status of ON!

Could this be a noise problem possibly caused by something that has changed recently? We haven't made any house wiring changes, nor installed any new appliances.

1) If Insteon uses line and RF signaling to verify status how can it be consistently wrong? I have enough modules all through the house and outside that signaling should be very reliable.

2) Will my Monterey X10 Powerline Signal/Noise Analysis tool be of use for noise in the Insteon signaling band?

I've been very happy with the Insteon installation up until now. Now it's not as reliable as my X!0 system was.

Dick
Central Texas

[BLH]

Insteon power line frequency is 131.65KHz and X10 120KHz.
Most noise meters that show noise in the X10 band would probably also effect Insteon power line signals.

Have you looked in the UDI forums for added help and information?
http://forum.universal-devices.com/index.php

[dickberrIN]

I found some noise sources but not finished searching ... in the meantime I have augmented the program to duplicate what's in the scenes and I've had no more failures.

QUESTION: How are the dual modes RF/power line utilized in Insteon? I thought that the RF connection would supplement the power line but evidently not. So how is the RF capability used then? I've got plenty of Insteon modules that should be providing great RF coverage throughout the house and yard.

[BLH]

Insteon RF can be spotty.
If Dual Band Switches are mounted it metal electrical boxes. The RF distance is much shorter as the antennas are on the back of the module. Deep in the box.
Things like walls between the modules may also decrease the open air specfications on the sales pages.

Since Insteon RF only devices like motion sensors are not timed to the power line. When a message is received. It has to be timed to the power line before being sent out by a power line device. If there is a lot of noise on the power line. It maybe waiting for a clear line before sending the messages or the noise is messing up the Zero Crossing circuit in the receiver module.